After a Sunday afternoon rush of emotions and drama on the back nice at Augusta National, our local pal Tom Pierce of Classic 5 Golf talks Rory, failure and triumph, and how The Masters hangover leads local golfers to his great courses around Baltimore to enjoy the game.
Nestor Aparicio and Tom Pierce from Classic 5 Golf discussed the excitement of the Masters Tournament, highlighting Rory McIlroy’s dramatic win and the back-nine drama. They also touched on the Orioles’ performance and upcoming events like the NFL Draft and the Maryland Crab Cake Tour. Tom shared insights on the appeal of golf, emphasizing its accessibility and the benefits of playing at Classic 5 Golf’s five Baltimore courses. They also talked about the mental and physical challenges of golf, the impact of weather on play, and the use of technology like Top Tracer to enhance the experience.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Masters Tournament, Rory McIlroy, golf drama, back nine, Orioles, NFL Draft, Maryland crab cake tour, Classic 5 Golf, golf courses, weather, lesson programs, Top Tracer, golf skills, Baltimore sports, Ravens.
SPEAKERS
Tom Pierce, Nestor Aparicio
8
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
Welcome home. We are W, N, S T. Am 1570 tasks in Baltimore, and we sometimes we never stop talking Baltimore sports around here. This be one of those weeks we got the Orioles on the pitching patrol right now, Luca be at the ballpark as well as the liars luncheon this week getting ready for the NFL Draft, I am bringing the Maryland crap cake tour to Beaumont, and I’m really excited about this. On Thursday over in Catonsville, I will have some scratch offs in the Maryland lottery. I think I’m gonna have some back to the futures, but I got a cool little show that I’m doing. Then we’re going to be Cooper’s North next week, and that’s up in Timonium mace chapel on Wednesday. Also got some great guests for that. And the 30th, we back at Coco’s pub, which is over by Mount Pleasant, where I’ve had this guy come in for a crab cake from time to time. But when you sit glued on a Sunday to bad pitching for Oriole baseball, and then, like, take a little respite, because, like, the Masters is no good this year, it’s a four shot lead. You’re gonna make a salad, come back, sit down, and you’re like he shot the ball. Where Tom Pierce is here from classic five golf to discuss a Sunday afternoon and a tradition unlike any other classic five golf, what’s going on Tom how to Philly’s doing now?
Tom Pierce 01:17
They’re okay. They got a winning record. It’s one of those like they’ve had recently in years, the slow starts of the season. Our starting pitch has been good, similar to what the Orioles saw yesterday. Relief pitching, not that great. We’ve been giving up some games, but it’s it’s early, so early. Well,
Nestor Aparicio 01:35
it’s early in the golf season. You know, I had ed on last week. I know he was tiptoeing through the azaleas $80.50 pimento sandwiches down there in Augusta. But it’s got lost on me. I talked golf last week. We run golf, you know, to the front of our website. You know, I have you, all of you on your revolving cast. RJ, everybody comes on and then something like the Masters hits on a weekend when the Orioles did stink and the game got extended and the kids had to wait to run the bases, and it all ended. And it felt like much like it felt to me, like, well, this isn’t gonna have any drama, and oh my goodness, golf delivers because they’re the back nine of Augusta. I mean, I’ve read about it, you know what? I mean, it’s the thing, and I think it ate up one of the greatest golfers of her generation, and then had a, you know, the rebirth that Greg Norman never really got right. No,
Tom Pierce 02:31
8exactly. I mean, that’s what the back nine of Augusta is. I mean, I think it held true to what people in the lore of what that golf course is about. I mean, that was probably one of the best two hours of golf we’ve had in a long time, with the with the drama and the ups and downs, and how Rory looked like he had it. He goes into 18, and then he bogeys and misses a very makeable putt. And you think, oh, gosh, is this happening again to this guy? And then he comes back, and I gotta say, when he hit that tee shot on the playoff hole. I mean, that’s the the inner fortitude that someone could have, because you think you just lost the Masters, you you had a chance to be one of those six golfers now that have won all major, all four majors, and you law, you think you just lost it, to be able to bring yourself back and hit a tee shot like that, and then put it as close he did. I mean, it was phenomenally it’s, it was some of the best golf and some of the the most exciting guy I’ve seen in a long time. I was
Nestor Aparicio 03:28
like, hold it in, right? I mean, like, it was, you know, I mean, real close. Tom, I just would say this from watching the meltdown of it that happened sometime between five and six o’clock. And literally, I went down to make a salad. I’m literally just preparing some stuff, getting a little water, you know, telling off from the Oriole thing. I’m not the guy like on social media, the man. I’m not at all, you know, like I watched it. I know what I need to say about it. I know what I think of it. It’s not colored by anything I’m going to read. So, you know, my phone’s even down. I didn’t even, I wasn’t I was off the grid, literally in the kitchen, just I’ve been looking at this boob tube for four hours, watching the Orioles, you know, blow three run lead. And you know, the part of it, where it happened. Where are you on the difficulty part of it, and seeing Greg Norman, seeing so many, seeing Tiger Woods charge that hill. Tiger Woods take 10 shot leads into the back nine and extended form, you know, like you’ve seen people on fire on that course, and you have seen it absolutely wilt the best golfers in the world, and it did that on Sunday. It has a reputation, and not everybody gets to come back and cry and go to Butler cabin and wear a green jacket. Most of the time, you sort of die in one of those bunkers or in the drink.
Tom Pierce 04:48
No, exactly. Oh, you totally do. And how many times have we had you’ve seen that over the years? Golfers do that, and then we kind of never hear from them again, because that it just what it does to you. Mentally, it’s just, I couldn’t, I couldn’t imagine what. You
Nestor Aparicio 05:03
don’t get many second opportunities to have the lead on Sunday in Augusta. You don’t get a lot of those chances in life. And there’s a lot of stories of not even guys effing it up because they they somebody catching them, somebody catching fire, somebody you know, holding out shots, somebody Eagle. This that happened back there, up there, when you get out, but it is generally a pretty messy thing on Sunday in general, that if you’re within three, four shots in either way, anything’s possible on that Sunday, including this meltdown that, I mean, you’ve been watching the Masters 40 years like, where do you put it in regard? I mean, I always think of Greg Norman, because he became famous for it. But he’s not the only one it happened to.
8Tom Pierce 05:48
Oh no, but at Norman, I mean, he’s the because he, I can’t remember how far he was ahead, but he was just dominating. I remember watching that, and I think it was Larry mines that beat him, that it was such a meltdown. But it was one of those things. I mean, I almost look at it. It’s not the masters. But when valdevailed, I can’t say his name properly at the British Open, he was up by like three strokes going into 18 and blows it that way. And you felt, I mean, just the watching, it was almost like watching, you know, a horror movie. It was like you’re almost feeling sad for the person. When Rory hit that ball into the into the creek, it was just like, Oh God, this is going to happen again. And this guy’s been trying to get that fourth major. And you were just like, oh, this is, this is like, you feel bad for him. I mean, I did. I watched that. I was just like, Oh my God, he’s going to he’s just going to collapse. Now, this is it. He’s done. He’s just going to blow up. That’s why I say the 42 that guy has, I mean, I put it second to none right now, to be able to pick it back up and complete what he did and how he finished out was pretty amazing. Tom
Nestor Aparicio 06:52
Pierce is here. He runs classic five golf. They are our partner. We highly encourage you to go to all five if I get put on the spot right now. Forest Park, Pine Ridge Mount Pleasant Carroll Park, and I always forget this one, and it’s the park that I actually drove through golf carts and balls trying to hit my number 22 bus at Clifton Park. It’s always the last one. Don’t ask me why it was the first. It’s the only golf course I ever experienced. I told you this in my whole life as a kid, that bus went through that golf course. I thought golf courses only appeared on television. I didn’t think they were like a real thing. We got up at Dundalk because we just didn’t drive by Sparrows Point or rocky point or anything like that. You guys have these five beautiful gem legacy Baltimore courses that are exactly and as I look out here, Monday, make it the Weather Report Year. Let’s see 6460 on the way to 6862 669, on Friday, 75 on Saturday. People sat around watch golf all weekend. You don’t have to be cooped up, right? I mean, maybe you were a little on Friday and Saturday, the orals were couped up too. But like this is a thing that gets people onto the courses. I mean, has it been that way? Like even on Monday morning, people are like, Alright, I want to come play again.
Tom Pierce 08:06
Oh, yes. Today has been a very good day. So far. Our T sheets are very full, which is great. And the weather. I mean, we’ve had a very poor weather to begin this this year. I mean January and February. I mean the cold and just the temperature we normally don’t have. March was pretty good. But then when you have April, like the the rain we had just recently had, it’s just been one of those. This, the weather’s not been great, and people have been chomping at the bit. So having what we’re seeing the next seven to 10 days weather wise, I mean, people, we’re seeing it on the T sheets. People are looking to come out. We’re ready for them. We’re excited. I mean, we always see the Masters as the unofficial start to the season. I
Nestor Aparicio 08:46
8always say this with golf, and maybe for somebody’s old, really old people play pickleball, and I know a couple of them that, you know, I was such an athlete as a kid, and I was kidding my wife about it, you know, I was a catcher in baseball, and I love tennis and played a lot of hoops. I’ve had vino Ranson on last week. I was his, one of his first coaches, when he was a kid. He came out to cost this we talked basketball. So like, you know, I’m, I hockey, you and I, I would goon it up with you right now, with the flyers, if they were any good. I really care about the caps at this point. But the goal thing’s fascinating to me, because I never perceived it this way as a kid, right? Like whether it was seeing Gordon John cock race, race cars, Mario Andretti, or whether it was watching George Brett hit a baseball, or Tom Seaver throw base, whatever it’s like baseball I played, and I knew where the skill level was in my All Star League or whatever, but you always needed other people to play tennis. I love tennis, but unless I had a wall, I had to have other people to play hockey, all of these team sports, even like soccer, kicking a ball around. Golf’s the one thing that I think at any point in your life. And my wife always threatens this, that you can pick it up, go. Get a lesson. And this is what classic five is about. It’s what all your courses about, all your visits are about, is that if you watched it over the weekend, it’s not like these other things. You have to have a race car to learn how to do or a lacrosse stick and have some skill to be able to do it, sort of like my comedy career. You can just go take it on anytime you want, long as you can you make it out, and you physically can be there, and you can really improve your game so much better than the Golf clubs I had, the old Fred and Barney, you know, prehistoric Wilson’s from the 60s that were left over from some garage my dad gave me, you know, to where everything’s measured now. And you can get good at hitting the golf ball and have fun with it, and do that thing about being outside and walking and socializing, all those things that I know that you talk so much about, and also family game, because kids put it, put a golf club in a kid’s hands. It’s different than a right fielder’s mitt. I think, Oh,
Tom Pierce 10:55
definitely. Well, it’s a game you can play for. I mean, your life, you don’t have to be large, you don’t have to be fast, you’re not to be strong. Um, it’s, it’s a learned skill, but it’s something almost anybody could pick up. And we see so many people coming through our lesson programs at all ages, picking it up. And as you said, it is a game where you can play. And I look at it, it’s four, four and a half hours to spend with your other people and have a great time with them outside. It’s, it’s we, we push that. It’s about fun, having fun, whether it’s with your family, whether it’s with your friends,
Nestor Aparicio 11:26
but nobody’s winning the Masters out of Carroll park this week, right? But
Tom Pierce 11:29
it’s not about that. It’s about enjoying yourself. You’re outside, you’re with your buddies, you’re with friends or whatever. But I look at it as it is a game you play for the you know, for life that you can play. Look at Fred couples, Bernard Langer. I mean, those guys are in in their 60s, almost qualifying for the weekend at the Masters. But as I’ve gotten older, I find that the game changes because you can’t hit it as far as you used to. But then it becomes a little more mentally challenging. It’s like, okay, well, I can’t hit the five iron that far anymore, so maybe I’m hitting a four, maybe I’m hitting a hybrid. So you play the game a little differently. And so you get that challenge, athletic challenge, mentally, which is great, and you still have the physical part to it. So, I mean, it’s, it’s a beautiful game. It’s a great game. And as I say, it’s, we try to push it. It’s about fun, having a good time out there. Enjoy the weather, enjoy the people you’re with.
8Nestor Aparicio 12:17
Is that same as Charlie Morton trying, yeah, 41 trying to take a little something off that. No, no, anything different. Basement is a little different. Little different. I mean, he’s not going with the four instead of the five at this point, right? No,
Tom Pierce 12:29
yeah, you can’t make that up. You can’t make that up. I mean, what was it? Bernard Langer, after he he didn’t qualify in the interview, you say, and he was hitting a three wood when his playing partner, I think was hitting like a seven iron because, but he can, he can make it work. He can make it work, especially with short track, right? Yeah, exactly. You can’t make the distance if you’re only throwing the ball 85 miles an hour. You can’t get that
Nestor Aparicio 12:53
Bernard liner, you know, would still be really good at golf all these years later, I would say he was a really serious cat, you know, that whole German School of thing going on, and like to think that he could still be precision minded all these years later, um, you know. And I think it is different, because I think the game eats a lot of guys up, you know, when they’re done, there’s, they’ve made so much money, there’s business all this live, live money going like, all that. I don’t know what that’s going to look like. I mean, Tigers just trying to be physically able to be well and walk the earth happy. I think it takes a lot more toll on your body than maybe people think and and is your mind too? You just maybe don’t want to do it anymore, you know? I think some days I feel the way about sports radio. Tom after 34 years, you know? Yeah, I
Tom Pierce 13:40
8think the mind is more than the body. I think tiger’s body is when you watch him swing, that the thrust and the power he comes through, that he’s torquing his body, you see other players that aren’t doing that, that you can, you can have the same swing you’re looking at Jack Nichols, the way he would hit the ball. I mean, he can still do it now, effortless. Yes, he does it Everly and
Nestor Aparicio 14:01
the way you and Norm Bucha always try to teach me, don’t not too hard, just swing there too you know? And to me, when I first got it, it was a baseball bat, faster, better, right? Hockey, slap shot, boom, boom, boom, boom. You know, I played a lot of hockey, but then finding that, and every time I ever hit a golf ball perfect, I didn’t, I didn’t swing hard,
Tom Pierce 14:22
right, right? It’s not about it swing smoothly and having good tempo. Tempo is a big thing of having the timing down. That’s where the guys in the women, you see the playing on TV. They played and hit so many balls, and have God given ability and talent that they can swing a little harder, because they have the tempo. They have the swing down. We people that play on weekends, you’re not playing it up, so it’s you swing smooth, you swing easy, and that way it’s amazing. It is a sport where the ball goes better and goes farther when you’re not trying to kill it, like you’re trying to hit a baseball off out of the park.
Nestor Aparicio 14:56
Classic five golf they’ll give you pro tips. They’ll get you on the. Get your kids on the course. Get you up with the tell me about the machines up at Pine Ridge. I gotta get you top trace. Oh, top
8Tom Pierce 15:05
tracer. Top tracer is great. We have them. I mean, it’s, it’s a great way that people, when you’re to make hitting balls in a driving range more interesting, and especially if you’re by yourself, that you not only can use some of the programs to really measure the distance, the spin rate, how you’re hitting your all your different clubs, but also beach. Yeah, you can play virtual golf. You can also
Nestor Aparicio 15:29
play the beer guys in the corner, playing at the Golden tee and all that. Yes, you could go really play like the real thing with a club, and
Tom Pierce 15:37
see what it’s like when you play from the back tees, where the pros are hitting. When you see them hit driver and seven iron and you hit it, you’re hitting driver and three wood and five iron, that the distance they’re able to make that ball go and also make it go straight, which is just, it’s phenomenal how good they are. I’m just
Nestor Aparicio 15:55
8working on hitting it straight all these years later, all the matters right down the middle, as I call myself. Uh Tom Pierce is here. He’s trying to keep it out of the drink and onto the fair waves at all the classic five golf places. I’m glad I could squeeze you in make this thing happen, because it was so compelling watching the golf league. I got to hit Tom and just talk about it a little bit. And you know, I’ll find you when the Orioles in the Philly you want to brag about the Eagles thing. I’ll just give you a minute to do that. To do that. Anything you want.
Tom Pierce 16:24
It’s, it’s one of those things that the ravens are right there. I mean, I was hoping it was going to be the ravens and the Eagles in the Super Bowl,
Nestor Aparicio 16:31
and then we’ll get together. That would be like me at 83 Yes, we went through. Yeah,
Tom Pierce 16:36
that was, I was there that one of the games, but a but just the not mistakes, but just the bad luck they had that in that bills game, because I went, I went actually, and was at the Eagles rams game, and my brother has tickets, or went to his house and got to see the second half of the buffalo ravens game. And was just like it was there for him, but just, you don’t want to see the same mistakes. It was almost like bad luck. But no,
8Nestor Aparicio 16:59
I saw the great Tommy Conwell up in your the homeland of Pennsylvania on Saturday night. And you know the line from the song, you make your own luck. You know what I’m saying. And you know Mark Andrews is doing TV commercials, but I wouldn’t be found on the podium the night after that. So you know. And then they got the whole Justin Tucker thing going on here in the foot. This has been not a great eight to 10 weeks of ravens history here. It’s been a pretty good one up Philadelphia, though, for for you tasty cake eaters, yeah,
Tom Pierce 17:27
no, it’s been good. But also, I mean, listen to it that the Ravens. I mean, you guys, your division is going to be pretty weak this year. The Ravens should dominate. I could see the Ravens sweeping everybody.
Nestor Aparicio 17:37
I told Mike Tomlin that two weeks ago, yeah. I said divisions, the ravens are going
Tom Pierce 17:40
8to be right there. And again, it’s just a matter of getting over that hump. Well, this is a great
Nestor Aparicio 17:44
week to preview all that, because we have to draft next week. Yes, and I’ve also got, we’re playing the whole state of Ohio for baseball this week. We we got the we got Cleveland, first part of the week, Cincinnati. It’s just sort of like football season around here. So I’ll be reaching out. We’re going to Cincinnati this week. Is uh, or we would say, I’ve spent some time in Cleveland already this week previewing Oriole baseball. Luke is going to be previewing the draft at the liars luncheon this week. He is the accredited member of the media. I have a dear Katie Griggs letter going out this weekend. It’s David Rubenstein bobble at night waiting. Billionaire bobble at night on Saturday night. Baseball season is here and golf season is here as well. Tom, thanks for making some time to visit a great weekend to watch golf, get excited about golf, and then you’re sitting there saying, we can teach you the game. Come on, Anthony the classic, five locations. All right, so that’s Carroll Park, Clifton Park, Forest Park, Pine Ridge and Mount Pleasant. Did I get them? All you did, all right. I’m trying to get him in different order, that way it’s in my mind the way it needs to be in my mind. And I always try to learn things around here. We had a great conversation with beno ransom, who the student became the teacher. He was my my basketball player when he was 10 or 11. He now coaches. And his coach professionally for last 25 years. He joined me Acosta over the weekend. We also pay tribute to Mr. Costas on his birthday, of all things, on 411 on Friday. So been a big week around here. Lots of sports going on, as well as Leo pine on other things important around here on tax day too. I am Nestor. We are W, N, S, D. Am 1570 Towson, Baltimore. We never stop talking Baltimore positive you.
